Coming home from work and almost home and at a merge, the guy in front of me in a box truck started to go, so I started to go, I had turned my attention to the traffic coming and didn’t realize he had suddenly stopped short, claimed someone blew a red light at this intersection.

I tapped him pretty hard as I had started to accelerate. Front end seems OK except my front decorative license plate is dented a little. Hood opens ok, no visible damage that I can see.

Car is an older 2012 Mazda5 with 143,000 on it that is my work daily driver/beater and was hoping to get another 2-3 years out of before I get a new car. I really don’t want to be trying to buy a new car in this insane market.

My concern is there’s damage that I CAN’T see, and will become a problem later. I’d estimate I was going 5-6 mph at that point?

We both immediately pulled over and as there was zero damage to his vehicle and none visible on mine other than the dented plate, we both sort of just went on our way.


I am scheduled for an oil change early Friday morning at my local Firestone, I guess I could have them check it while there?

This is the front end of a Mazda5 for reference; it’s pretty substantial/sturdy so I’m hoping this is nothing:

If there’s no broken plastic bumpers or grill, I’d let it ride…

I hit a 5gal bucket at 80 mph that flew out of a truck in front of me and it caused a grand of damage. Just after I paid to get that fixed, I hit a raccoon at about 30mph. Smashed a front bumper and grille….another grand (Nissan Altima)

I’d say you’re good to go.

I wouldn't be worried if there is no visual damage to car. How does your body feel?

Not sure how you tap someone pretty hard. It sounds like a comedy skit I’ve heard where the officer gets a description of the accident from the person who caused it and the person who got hit

With no obvious exterior damage I’m sure you’ll be fine. You would usually need to do some exterior damage to cause enough damage that it will turn into a bigger problem. I would crawl under there and look for any obvious bent metal or leaks of any kind both of which are unlikely. If it was straight on I doubt you have any bent suspension pieces and if you did you would have noticed on the way home.

With a car at those miles and value and rightfully no desire to buy a car right now I wouldn’t worry about it after a cursory check.

I did the same thing, in essentially three same way, a number of years ago. Girl stopped at a light. Began her turn. Once she was going I looked to the left as I began moving... *BANG* WTF?!?!

She'd stopped again. *sigh*

We both pulled over. Then a third car. Turned out her husband was there in another car. Couple of young kids. They were both freaking out. Wanted to call the cops out. Mind you: Both old cars. Maybe minor bumper scrapes on each. I finally convinced them it made no sense to make a big deal of it. Figured that was the end of it.

Nope. After work they both went to the police station to report it anyway. <smh>

Cop called me. Told me we should have had them come out. Ok. Then told me he told them the same thing I had: The damage was probably less than their deductible and the most they'd accomplish would be to get their insurance rates raised. (We were a no-fault state at the time.)

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
My concern is there’s damage that I CAN’T see, and will become a problem later.

I am scheduled for an oil change early Friday morning at my local Firestone, I guess I could have them check it while there?

Only thing I'd trust them for are new tires and alignment. Even then, I think if Discount Tire did alignments, Firestone would be obsolete. I wouldn't trust Firestone for an oil change and sure as hell wouldn't trust them to look for damage on anything other than a tire.

Unless you have a mechanic that you trust, I'd let it go. I'm another that wouldn't trust firestone. I've been forced to use them from time to time on my fleet vehicle and frankly they suck. They've rounded off lug nuts on tire rotations and barely tightened oil filters that end up leaking after a few hundred miles.

Any body shop is going to tell you there is damage because they want your money.

I had that happen to me once. Guy had an extended hitch on his BMW that slightly dented my thin aluminum license plate. I could see there was other damage to his bumper I didn't do and I couldn't have done due to it being 8" in from his hitch thing. I took pics, he didn't see me do it. I had my kids in the car and didn't want to get into it with him. I gave him my info and told him to call me after he gets an estimate. Dude filed a claim on my policy. I submitted my pics and insurance denied his claim and told him nice try.

Maybe there is a reason why they call those things "bumpers"?

Those Mazdas have a lot of plastic on the front, and its pretty pliable. I backed into our Mazda 3 with our Suburban a couple of months ago (got into the Suburban in the garage with the door shut, and when I opened it the car was parked so close behind that I couldn't see it). I hit it hard enough to move it backwards a few inches. There's now a nice little square shaped dent in the front grille plastic from receiver of the Suburban's hitch. We've been driving it like that...haven't experienced any problems.

That same car took a break disk backing plate up the front wheel well at 70mph on the interstate one time. Punched some holes in the plastic inner fender, but no serious damage. They're tougher than they look.

Nothing leaking? Your GTG.

I've had that happen twice. The first was a scam to milk a settlement from my insurance company. I had called in the details, and even offered to fax the suit when I received it, but they said they already had it. A year later I get a screaming adjuster blaming me I hid it from them yet once they performed some due diligence on their part they found records on it all. And then worked around me to settle so I couldn't derail their agenda.

Still have that company. Things have changed.

Second was just recently and it was a $5000 tap in the rear, where someone changed lanes forcing me to stop and the car behind wasn't watching. His insurance took care of it.

Getting it checked needs to be done at a body shop, not a mechanic or oil change shop. As both participants separated with no exchange of information or a police report, there can be no liability on the other. The owner pays for all repairs discovered after the fact.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
My concern is there’s damage that I CAN’T see, and will become a problem later.

I am scheduled for an oil change early Friday morning at my local Firestone, I guess I could have them check it while there?

Only thing I'd trust them for are new tires and alignment. Even then, I think if Discount Tire did alignments, Firestone would be obsolete. I wouldn't trust Firestone for an oil change and sure as hell wouldn't trust them to look for damage on anything other than a tire.

One thing that I had arise out of a similar situation was it caused an "out of alignment condition" on that end of the car that I didn't notice until the uneven wear started . Ironically Firestone may be a great place to have that addressed. If you haven't had an alignment recently I'd probably spring for one. Unless your tires are already near the end. Then I'd just wait until I bought a new set.

You only squished the plastic cover around a bit.

Possible squished the foam bumper pads a bit, but probably did no damage to the bumper itself.

I did the same years ago, learned my lesson. The guy in front started to go, I looked left to check traffic, he stopped. My tap was fairly light, we talked, nothing more required.

As a vehicle gets older, I leave more stuff go. Right now the plastic ‘air dam’ is off the front of my truck. I scraped a hidden rock, no need to put one back on.

I would not worry about it.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
I did the same years ago, learned my lesson. The guy in front started to go, I looked left to check traffic, he stopped. My tap was fairly light, we talked, nothing more required.

As a vehicle gets older, I leave more stuff go. Right now the plastic ‘air dam’ is off the front of my truck. I scraped a hidden rock, no need to put one back on.

It’s one of the most common accident scenarios for sure.

You lost me at Firestone...

Generally speaking, if there are no fluids leaking, and no rubbing or grinding etc noises happening, and the air bags did not go off, you're ok.

FWIW, per a body shop buddy, if a car is more than a few years old, and is not an expensive high value car to start with, and is more or less your average run of the mill car, if the air bags went off, then economically it's probably a total. Air bags cost a shitload of money to replace and thus has made a relatively minor fender bender into a total out vehicle.
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